The home office of Engine 145 has been experiencing some technical difficulties this week and we’ll be back to a normal posting schedule as quickly as we can. Joey+Rory are hosting “Retreat to the Ranch,” a vacation getaway in Wyoming from July 8 -14. It looks like a cross between City Slickers and the Grand […]

Little Jimmy Dickens turned 90 on Sunday. Shania Twain is engaged, and has been for a couple of months now, to Frédéric Thiébaud. She announced the engagement on her website this morning. Farce the Music Parody Album Covers: A Country Christmas 2010 Craig Havighurst has an article on NPR about the songwriting system in Nashville […]

Jimmy Dean and Don Williams were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame last night. Unfortunately, neither inductee was present at the ceremony: Dean passed away earlier this year and Williams was suffering with bronchitis, but is expected to resume his tour on Tuesday. Peter Cooper has a recap. A new TV show based […]

CMT didn’t take too kindly to the American Country Awards‘ claim that it was “the first and only country music awards show where fans determine all the winners.” “While CMT congratulates this mysterious organization on its first awards show, we are amused by their self-proclaimed title as the first and only fan-voted award show. All […]

Music manager Dan Dymtrow is suing Taylor Swift, claiming she owes him millions for helping develop her career from April ’04 to July ’05. Dymtrow says his management deals with Swift and parents Scott and Andrea Swift provided that he be paid between 5 percent and 10 percent commission (or more) from Taylor’s music career. […]

Montgomery Gentry has parted ways with its longtime label Columbia Records. Warner Brothers Nashville announced plans to release a double-disc collection titled Original Songwriter Demos, which is pretty self-explanatory, but some of the demos included are: “The Dance,” “The House That Built Me,” and “I Hope You Dance.” Gary Scruggs says his father is doing […]

At last night’s ASCAP country music awards ceremony, songwriter Brett James took home his second ASCAP songwriter of the year honor for helping write five of the organization’s most performed songs of the past year. Songwriter Josh Kear won for the second time as well. His win came in the song of the year category […]

During tonight’s ASCAP Country Music Awards Alan Jackson will be recognized with the organization’s Founder’s Award. In an interview with The Tennessean‘s Cindy Watts, Jackson talked about the honor, his oldest daughter leaving for college, and future plans: “He still wants to make a classic bluegrass record, is contemplating another gospel recording and thinks he […]

With four trophies apiece, Gord Bamford (MySpace) and Johnny Reid (MySpace) left Sunday night’s male-dominated Canadian Country Music Awards the big winners. Outside of the main categories, female duo One More Girl (MySpace) was named rising star of the year, pulling in one of the few wins for the women, while perennial favorite Corb Lund […]

Stop the presses: Merle Haggard is one of the five 2010 Kennedy Center honorees for his “lifetime contributions to American culture through the performing arts.” The annual Honors Gala is scheduled to take place Dec. 5 and later broadcast on CBS on Dec. 28. Joey+Rory‘s Album Number Two can be streamed a week early on […]